How it started

Original sketch of Duncan Macmillan House then known as Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham,1878

Not another talk about R

  • But about PSOC - Psychology of Sense of Community
  • Sort of like RPySOC - R and Python Source Open Community
David Schitt from Schitt's Creek saying I love making connections

Scientific measuring of Community

In a paper called Sense of Community in Science Fiction Fandom Professor of Psychology, Seymour Bernard Sarason was mentioned has having

… noted that it necessarily implies a value judgment not compatible with hard science and yet he stated “you know when you have it and when you don’t”

Obst, Patricia L. and Zinkiewicz, Lucy and Smith, Sandy G. (2001)Sense of Community in Science Fiction Fandom, Part 1: Understanding sense of community in an international community of interest. Journal of Community Psychology 30(1):87-103. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/601/4/601.pdf

Further research

Two other authors McMillan and Chavis expanded on this in 1985 and revisited in 1996, to detail four specific but interconnected elements:

  • Membership > Spirit
  • Influence > Trust
  • Integration and Fulfilment of Needs > Trade
  • Shared Emotional Connection > Art or collective memories

Key point

The authors suggest that the more people interact, the more likely they are to form close relationships. The more positive this interaction, the stronger the bond developed.

Obst, Patricia L. and Zinkiewicz, Lucy and Smith, Sandy G. (2001) Sense of Community in Science Fiction Fandom, Part1: Understanding sense of community in an international community of interest. Journal of Community Psychology 30(1):87-103. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/601/4/601.pdf

Hmmm… questions

3 pug dogs looking quizzical moving their heads from side to side

Shared goals

We probably need a vision, an action plan, that type of thing.

We need access to the right tools

Photo of many tools like knives and spanners neatly piled together

We need to share our code as standard

Government Service Manual says:

It is much easier to write your code in the open from the beginning of a project than it is to to open an existing repository later, because you can address security and other issues as you go along. If you do not do this, you will have to spend a costly period of time at the end of the project checking your code is all safe to be released.

We need to build capacity in the analytical workforce

Photo of the back of a school child with a backpack walking away into a building